Smoke-laden flour and method of producing same



H. E. ALLEN Jan. 4, 1944 SMOKE LADEN FLOUR AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME Filed Nov. 22, 1940 I Patented I UNITED STATES PATENT SMOKE-LADEN FLOUR ANI) METHOD OF- PRODUCING SAME Hugh E. Allen, Northbrook, ni.,' assignor or onehalf to Albert G, McCaleb, Evanston; lll. V ApplicationNovember 22 ,1940,5erialNo/366JZ9 A V v 2Claims; ((199-140) My invention contemplates and provides a novel product in the form of a smoke laden flour which is admirably adapted to be incorporated, as a binder, in ground meats such as are utilized. in making various kinds and varieties of sausages V 7 For'many years progresslve sausage manufacturers keenly have appreciated the need for, and hopefully have awaited the advent of, a healthful, reasonably uniform, satisfactorily usable, and

economically produced, grain cereal binder capable of carrying the flavor and aroma of wood smoke to and into the meat protein constituents of sausage casing fillers. Such a binder would permit eliminating, or minimizing, ofthe usual sausage. smoking operation ,with consequent elimination, or minimization, of one'of the greatest problems of makers of smoked sausages, i. e.. the shrinkage inevitably caused by smoking sausages as such.

But despite long standing need and demand for a grain cereal binder having the above enumeratgd characteristics, the exact nature of such a bin'iir, and the method whereby to produce same, remained unknown, until my concept and practice of what is disclosed and taught by the instant specification.

, Prior efforts to provide a grain cereal binder with the ,flour, and because of the tendency of suchcondensates to render. the flourrpasty or doughy. a

So much for-the prior artandzthe a'aons why the prior artcould not'and did nctjimeet the needsv and'requirements of the sausagemaking industry 'for a healthful and otherwise gacceptable and usable sausagecasing filler binder the nature: of a, cereal grain ,ilour richly? endowed with the flavor and aroma offhard wood smoke. The product of thepresent-Jnvention is "a cereal grain flour havingj comininfgled therewith oil soluble tars, which are extrih'elyLfiiclrin the I true flavor and aroma of hard smoke, and

which are free from all undeairablejjidehydes and ketones and-deleterious ,fl b i' residues,

such "tars being brokendown intominute giobules which are thoroughly I uniformly dis-' tributed throughout, and malintained-. sssepa-. rated globules by, the particles oL th'e flour,

Iii producing the smoke laden flour them-es I out .invention,.I. prefer that a cereal grain, in granular form and-desirably in the form 01'- whole grains. besubjected to a wood smoking time; I

Such smoking operation desirably is eflected at a temperature as low as 130' 1 During and by such wood smoking operation some'of the whole grains, or lesser granules of the grain. become incharacterlzed by the flavor and aroma of wood smoke have involved the introduction into flour of either ifliquid smoke orviscous liquids in the nature. of condensates :obtained-fromihe destructive distillation of wood. The products of f such efforts'have not satisfied the requirements or practical sausage manufacturers.

The admixture of any of the varieties of socalled liquid smokefiwith flour to impart smoke flavor and aroma to the flour was not and' is not practicable for a'number of reasons, one of these being that any measure of liquid smoke" capable of imparting any significant strength" of wood and, discussion of product, method,,- ,and illussmoke flavor to any given quantity of flour will convert the flour into a pasty or doughy mass which is neither marketable (or suitable for use) j as such, nor susceptible of being easily or effec-, tively processed into marketable condition.

, The comminsling withflour of viscous liquids I in the nature of condensates obtained. from the destructive distillation of wood was .not and is' notpracticable because of the prohibitive cost of producing suchcondensates, because of the presence therein of certain very undesirable aideh-ydes and ketones as well as'deleteriouswood,

fiber residues, because of the difliculty-well nigh impossibility-oi uniformly intermixing them line 2 -2-of Fig. 1 and'lookir'iglih f; Fig. 1 is a verticalsection mentwhichmaybeutilizedin whole dividually coated with oil solubie wood smoke tars. Thensuch grains, or the lesser granules of the grain, and-the smoketar coatings; thereof, are.

simultaneously milled to educe thewhole grains,

or lesser granules of the grain, to flour and to f break up the oil soluble smoke tarsinto minute' globules which are. thoroughly 'aiid uniformly distributed among and he particles ofsuchiloura i w I I These ,and other features, objects and advantages of the present invention more clearly appear from the following detgfiledldescription tr'ative apparatus wherewith toi 'eifect that stepinthe method which consists the smoking 01- tne whoiegrains or lesser'gran iles-of'the graim 4c g In the. accompanying 'shee rawings,

grains or lesser granules of he grain" this View being taken'on the line z-zor rsi in the directionindicat'ed by the rowss-"i Fig.2 is a vertical sectiona'i vie taken onthe indicatedbyithe arrows; and Fig. 3 is a-frasmentary detail I, t ieniecha ism which may beiuui zec to agitate the, directio n I .iew of part of" the whole grains, or the lesser granules of the grain, during the smoking thereof.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the drawing numeral I indicates a cabinet, much like a conventional locker cabinet, having a suitably hinged horizontally swinging door I, which is desirably equipped with a handle latch (not shown). The walls, top, bottom and door of the cabinet are preferably formed of metal so that they will effectively conduct excess heat from the interior of the cabinet to the surrounding atmosphere.

Disposed on the floor of the cabinet is an electric heater or hot plate t on which is disposed a pan 1 adapted to contain a quantity 8 of hard wood saw dust, e. g., hickory saw dust.

The upper portion of the cabinet is provided with a flue 9, which, if desired, may be controlled by a thermostatically actuated damper or butterfly valve It. The thermostat, responding to temperature in the top of the cabinet, may be of any one of several suitable types. The thermostat depicted in the accompanying drawing may be assumed to comprise a coil II which, by its expansion and contraction under temperature changes, serves to operate an electrical switch (not shown) located in housing it. A conduit It may be assumed to protect circuit conductors through which the switch in the housing I! controls electro-magnetic mechanism (not shown) located in housing It, such electro-magnetic mechanism being connected through linkage II with damper Ill. I prefer that the thermostat shall be adjusted to operate the damper to maintain in the cabinet an average operating temperature which is at least as low as 130 1'.

Disposed in the cabinet, and spaced from the side walls thereof are fixed vertical bars II to which are welded or otherwise secured the metal angle bars I! on which trays II are slidably disposed in superposed and spaced relationship.

I shall now describe mechanism which, if desired, may be utilized to move the trays ll hori zontally to and fro on their supports ll, and thus gently agitate the contents of the trays, during the smoking operation. Disposed in the cabinet near the rear end thereof is a vertically disposed bar It which is capable of a certain amount of rectilinear horizontal reciprocation in and with respect to the cabinet, such bar II having horizontally turned extremities Il-ll cooperating with guide members fi--Il carried by the top and bottom of the cabinet. Bar II is also provided, intermediate its ends, with a horizontally rearwardly extending arm 22. Formed in such arm f2, and also in each of the aforementioned bar extremities II, is an elongated slot 23 for the accommodation of a vertically disposed rotatable shaft 24 which may be driven, through suitable gearing ll, by an electric motor 26 supported on the exterior of the cabinet top. The arm 2! of the bar II, and also each of the bar extremities, is provided with a pin 21 which extends into the cam channel it of an adjacent eccentric I. fixed upon shaft 24. Rotation of shaft 24 will be translated, by eccentrics 29 and their cooperatins pins 11, into rectilinear horizontal reciprocation of the vertically disposed bar it.

On its forward face the bar It carries a plurality of latches 30, each of such latches being adapted frictionally but releasably to engage the curled edge of one of the trays "when the tray is disposed upon its appropriate supports II and moved rearwardly thereon into the embrace of the latch. The arrangementis such that a positive forward pull on the tray will release it from its associated latch without directly manually manipulating the latch, notwithstanding that the latch does engage the tray, and effect its horizontal to and fro movement, whenever the horizontal reciprocatory movement of the vertically disposed bar it occurs. Each latch It comprises a fixed Jaw 3|, a pivotally mounted movable Jaw 3!,and a spring 33 which tends to bias the forward end of the movable Jaw toward the corresponding end of the fixed jaw.

It should be understood that the temperature controlling thermostat and damper operated thereby, as well as the mechanism for gently agitating the material undergoing the smoking operation, are not indispensables in an equipment which may be used in practicing the method of the present invention. They are, however, excellent, although optional, adjuncts to such an equipment.

By cereal gra as the words are used in this specification, I mean either whole grains or lesser particles of one or more of corn, oats, wheat, rye, barley, rice, navy beans, soya beans, lentils, peas, etc.

In practicing the method of my present invention-to produce the new product thereof, I prefer to place whole cereal grains in the trays II which are then placed in the cabinet 4 and 7 upon the tray supports il. On being so placed,

the trays are pushed into the'embrace of the latches 30 if the grains are to be gently agitated while being smoked. It is preferred that each I tray shall contain but a relatively small leveled out quantity of the grains so that the depth of the tray contents will be quite small and the upper or exposed surface of such contents of considerable area.

The pan I is then filled with hard wood saw dust, placed upon the heater 8, the heater put into operation, and the door of the cabinet 4 closed. The cabinet quickly fills with a dense} fragrant smoke.

The heater is kept in operation for such period as has been found suitable for the particular grains being smoked, e. g., approximately two hours.

The motor 26 may be energized to cause gentle agitation of the grains during all or any portion of the smoking period.

at the end of the smoking period the trays are removed from the cabinet. At that time it will be found that all or mos of the grains have become coated with a tarry substance (oil soluble wood 'smoke tars) After the grains have been thus smoked, i. e., coated with oil soluble wood smoke tars, they are placed in a suitable mill and ground to whole grain flour. The grinding of the grains after the wood smoke tars have been deposited thereon breaks down the tars into a myriad of extremely minute globules which are very uniformly distributed throughout the flour produced while such minute globules are being formed. These minute globules of the wood smoke tars, being uniformly distributed throughout the flour, and retaining their identity because separated by particles of the flour, are capable of emulsifying with the aqueous juices of the ground meats with which the smoke laden flour subsequently is intermixed in the preparation of any desired-sausase casing filler.

a The smoke flavor strength of my novel smoke smoke tar coatings, it is not necessary a,ssa,1ss

with the wood smoke tars deposited upon them laden flour is very high, with the result that the maximum of smoky flavor and aroma which may be needed in any given sausage, readily may be imparted to that sausage by incorporating in its casing filler a quantity of such flour which is both tolerable and desirable in good sausage making practice.

While I prefer to produce my novel smoke laden hour by smoking whole grains and then simultaneously grinding such whole grains and their that the cereal grain thus smoked always shall be in the form of whole grains. Very good results can be obtained by smoking lesser granules of the grain and then grinding those lesser granules, and their tar coatings, to produce the smoke laden dour of the present invention. Among the lesser granules of grain which have been found suitable for my purpose are various kinds of grain grits, including, among others, those wheat grits commonly known as farina.

By grits, as the term is used in this specification, I mean gritty, and relatively non-agglutinous, particles, of a grain. By lesser granules, as these words are used mean grits or other grain particles which are capable of beingsmoked and then milled along in this specification, I 25 during the smoking operation. 7

It is practicable and desirable to bolt my novel smoke laden flour before packaging same for to sausage makers.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. The method, of producing a ground meat binder, which comprises wood smoking cereal grain at a temperature in the neighborhood oi 130'1'. to cause the deposit thereon or a tarry substance in substantially unabsorbed condition,

and then milling the grain and the tarry substance to aflord a flour having particles of the rry substance distributed therethroush.

2. The method, of producing a ground meat binder, which comprises wood smoking cereal grain at a temperature in the neighborhood of 130 1". to cause unabsorbed condition, agitating the grain while smoking it, and then milling the grain and the tarry substance to atiord a hour having particles of the tarry substance distributed therethroush.

HUGH E. ALLEN.

sale

the deposit thereon of a tarry a substance in substantially 

